It's All in the Pants
by toester89
Summary: FULL EDIT FROM 2007! Alternate fourth summer. Tib's working with gasp! kids in California, leaving Lena, Carmen, and Bee to fend for themselves in Bethesda. Lena gets invited on a spontaneous vacation, shaking up the Septembers' original plans...
1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or anything like that. The genius that was Anne Brashares' idea does not belong to me.**

Prologue:

The fourth summer of the Pants was one we knew we all wouldn't forget after it was over. Our lives up to this point had been a whirlwind of memories. It seemed like ever since we found the Pants, something huge had happened every summer. Looking back on our old selves was like flipping through a dusty photo album. We looked back at our young selves with compassion, like a proud mother looks back at the childhood of her daughters. Growing up without a mother, my friends had always been a big deal. They were always there for me to lean on. Carmen, Tibby, and Lena were all people I could cry to, laugh with, fight with, make up with, and share with. It had just been like that.

If you haven't grown up with us, you wouldn't know how we became The Septembers. Carmen's mother Christina, Tibby's mom Alice, Lena's mother Ari and my mom Marly all realized that it would be beneficial to take an aerobics class during their pregnancies. Things like cravings (Alice loved French fries, and my mom couldn't go an hour without eating cantaloupe) and weight (Tibby's mom was the petite one) differed, but they all joined a class at Gilda's for expecting mothers. It was after the class and after we were born that we all began hanging out and seeing each other.

Then our mothers drifted apart, and we became closer. It was after my mom died that they sort of went their own ways. But us? It was the most imperative time in my life for me to have sisters such as Tibby, Lena, and Carmen. It was hard for me to accept, hard for me to talk about; even hard to think about. I was just a little girl who had lost her mother and I didn't know what to make of it. Carmen, Tibby, and Lena were always there, though. They always seemed to know the right thing to do even when I felt so lost.

My mother's absence in my life has been a sandy foundation for me to balance my life on, but it affected me so much that I don't know where to go without it hovering behind me like an insistent bee. I can let go during daylight, around my friends, at a party or at work, but during nights when I'm alone in my bed with the darkness and insomnia, Marly is all that consumes my thoughts. She becomes a part of me at night. We have late night conversations, laughs, and cries, and we're together again. I feel so close to her that it almost gets spooky. And then I wake up the next morning and she's gone, like a ghost that slid delicately out the window. Then I start my day without her, and I try as hard as I can not to think about my mom every flaming minute of the day.

The Pants have helped me so much in getting through the journey of life without one of my parents. The Pants, the magic Pants, Pants that fit all of our individual physiques with precision, have been shared for three short years. They were like the jumping off point for the first summer Carmen, Tib, Lena and I spent away from each other. They brought us even closer when we thought we were crammed together like a can of sardines. The four of us share the Pants, we share memories, and we share each other. Every one of us has qualities that each of us value. If we're feeling sucky, we go to Tibby; she can get mad at the world with us. For advice, we have to call Carmen. Carmen doesn't think that she and life get along very well, but for us there's no other to ask and she always knows what to do. Lena is always the one that can calm us down. Her quiet, observant ways make you feel like you know the answer to anything. And me, Bee? I just get to make sure everyone has a good time.

Which is why, with me around, this summer was going to be unforgettable.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"I need my computer; where is my computer?" Tibby muttered. Her old laptop was freshly charged and ready to be slid into a vacant suitcase at any moment, but had now disappeared right when she needed it. Lena sat in silence, watching instead of helping look for it, on Tibby's bed. Bridget dug through Tibby's closet for anything she might want to wear while Carmen made sandwiches downstairs. Everyone was relatively quiet, silently praying that Tibby's flight might be cancelled forever so that they could spend their summer together.

Even Tibby wished this, but she denied it. Who was she to not appreciate an opportunity like the one she had?

"There you are," Tibby scolded her computer, which had hidden itself on the cluttered bookcase.

"Tibs, can I borrow this?" Bridget asked, holding up a lavender sweatshirt.

Tibby looked up and moved the hair out of her face. She had just gotten her hair cut, and the bangs were in her face at all times. She liked the new color, but she wasn't so sure about the bangs lately. At least ever since they had started swinging in her face. Like three minutes after she got them cut.

"That? Where did I get that?"

Bridget shrugged. "The tag is cut off."

"Sure, then," Tibby nodded.

"What, you weren't going to let me borrow it if it was a designer purple sweatshirt?" Bridget teased with a smile. Tibby pushed a fake smile on her own face. Like she owned anything designer.

"Don't give me that, Tibs, I know it was funny," Bridget joked again, knowing it wasn't actually that funny.

This time Tibby laughed, almost making fun of Bee. "Okay, fine, hilarious."

Lena hugged Tibby's pillow, watching the events unfold. "Why can't I be funny like you guys?"

Tibby and Bridget stared disbelieving at Lena.

"Lenny, what are you talking about?" Bridget rolled her eyes, "Do you know how much you've changed since we found the Traveling Pants?" Bee grabbed Lena's calf.

"Maybe I just mean weird," Lena changed her mind with a smile, "Yeah. You guys are _weird_."

Tibby stuck her tongue out. "Not."

"Sandwiches!" Carmen called.

"Jeez, Carmen, what took you so long?" Bee complained, grabbing her classic PB & J. Given the choice between exotic and familiar, Bridget would always choose the peanut butter and jelly.

"I made it perfect this time, Bee," Carmen explained, "I used your mom's organic peanut butter Tibs. There were like zero ingredients. Peanuts and salt."

"That's two ingredients," Tibby rolled up another shirt to shove inside her suitcase, "And I hate peanut butter."

"We know, Tibster, that's why I didn't make you a PB & J," Carmen yelled, trying out a new nickname.

"Tibster?" Tibby questioned with half of a laugh on her face. Tib, she was. Arnold Schwarzenegger, she was not.

Carmen shrugged, as if to say it was just a thought. A thought she should have kept inside her head.

"Thanks, Carmen," Lena said, contendedly chewing her sandwich. Bee had taken to a bottle of bubbles, and Lena watched as they floated around the room, popping against anything they came in contact with. She smacked one away before it hit her perfect sandwich. One landed on the bottle of water on the table beside Tibby's bed. A bowl of fish had taken the place of Mimi the guinea pig's cage from so long ago, and two fat goldfish swam lazily around inside. They had affectionately been named Fresh and Juicy, seeing as how the first thing Tibby saw when she bought them had been a carton of orange juice. Tibby randomized things. It didn't matter to her that she couldn't tell Fresh and Juicy apart. They were her fish, and they adored her. They had to. She was their source of life, the reason they hadn't been eaten by a bird in their native country of origin, Japan.

"So, are you excited to go?" Carmen asked of Tibby for the hundredth time. Carmen wanted to be convinced. She wanted Tibby to stay, and Carmen tried to feel better by reassuring herself that Tibby was dying to go. Tibby shrugged.

Not convincing.

"It's different from everything else I've ever done," Tib answered. Tibby was going to be working at a huge children's festival in Los Angeles for the first two months of summer, helping put it together, filming it, and cutting a movie about it for the last night. There were five hundred kids signed up; it was obviously a big deal to the community and a big deal to Tibby, even though she didn't show it. She was excited to go to California. She thought she might meet some effortlessly cool, hipster boyfriend who liked Pollock and folk music, or death metal. She was interested in anyone interesting who might like weird people. Tibby was weird, so she naturally felt good when someone else liked her.

"Yeah," Bridget agreed, "But it's going to be so cool. I can't wait to see your movie."

"Me too," Tib sighed, "If it's any good."

Tibby drew attention to herself by putting herself down most of the time. She wasn't being serious, and Bee, Carmen, and Lena knew it, but they were just about the only ones. She talked about herself being fat, being dumb, being talent-less, when she knew she really wasn't. It was her way of trying to be funny. It didn't have that affect, but it did get her some attention by anyone who may have been listening.

Lena smiled confidently at Tibby. "We'll miss you, T."

Tibby smiled faintly. "Thanks." She meant it, but no more words would come out until she bit her lip to drive away the tears that were building up behind her eyes. She had been oddly emotional lately. She pushed her hair out of her bangs and decided to blame it on Mother Nature.


End file.
